Identity Construction of Graduate Students— A Diary Study of Language Majors

Abstract

The concept of "identity" has been explored in higher education literature over the past two decades, and studies have found that identities are constantly changing and developing. When students enter a new environment, they are faced with new demands. They must adjust their identity to fit the new identity requirements and simultaneously begin a series of identity transitions. While some existing international studies have used different research methods to explore the identity transition of undergraduate and graduate students from different perspectives, few studies have been conducted in China on the identity transition of first-year graduate students. To explore the identity adjustment process of Chinese first-year graduate students majoring in English, as well as influencing factors in this process, this paper uses case study from a qualitative research approach to address the above research questions. The study found that through interaction with teachers, students, and family members, students were able to better understand the demands of graduate studies and get support when they encountered problems in studies and lives, and four students attributed “academic identity” to graduate identity. At the same time, the graduate courses and related assignments helped the students to adjust to their learning process and academic identity, allowing them to acquire the necessary professional academic knowledge and develop their research skills, which were essential for building their academic/researcher identities. The study proposed that the different factors mentioned above differed in their influence on students' identity adjustment due to different individual backgrounds.